Pam Swain
Chief Executive, The British Association of Dental Nurses
Following a gap year studying German whilst selling newspapers outside Vienna’s Wien Mitte railway station and working as an au pair and English tutor in Vienna, and a brief spell at the Home Office Research Unit in the late 70s, Pam Swain brushed up her French in the pharmaceutical and hotel industries in Brussels, before working at NATO in a number of posts, ranging from Electronic Warfare to Crisis Management, Exercise & Training.
In the late 80s, she moved to Bermuda to work in the Bank of Bermuda’s Investment Department, where she completed three quarters of her American Institute of Banking Diploma and several business management courses before moving on. During this time, she trained as a hotline counsellor with the Bermuda Rape Crisis Centre and manned the phone hotline once a week.
Some 15 years after her first gap year, Pam took another – spending 12 months in Boston, Massachusetts studying holistic therapy at the Massage Institute of New England and obtaining the American Massage Therapy Association certification.
Pam returned to her home town of Fleetwood in 1991 and began working for BADN (then ABDSA) in 1992, where she was a key figure in the campaign for statutory registration of dental nurses in the UK, which was implemented in 2006. As well as being BADN’s Chief Executive, Pam is Editor of the “British Dental Nurses’ Journal” and was, until its closure in 2005, also Registrar of the Voluntary National Register of Dental Nurses. Pam also writes regular columns for “The Probe” and other dental publications and has been on several editorial boards. Pam is also responsible for the organisation and management of all BADN events, including the annual National Dental Nursing Conference.
Pam was awarded the City & Guilds Licentiate in Management in 2005 and a Masters’ degree in Business Administration in 2007. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.
Having been a member of Soroptimist International Fleetwood until it closed in 2004, and a member of its Housing Committee (SI Fleetwood owned and maintained a property of several bedsits, offering accommodation to elderly ladies in distressed circumstances), Pam is now an active member of SI Blackpool & District. Using her event management skills honed over 20 years of organising the National Dental Nursing Conference, she was responsible for the organisation of SI Blackpool’s 50th Charter celebrations.
Pam was President of SI Blackpool 2012-2013 and asked to do a second term in 2013-2014. During her Presidential term, Pam researched and liaised with the Community Foundation for Lancashire following a considerable legacy to the Club from a former member. Pam also organised various events – including a chocolate Tombola and a Meat Free Mondays piggy bank campaign – to raise money for her Presidential charities: Bridge2Aid and the Household Cavalry Occupational Casualties Fund. She has also acted as both Programme and Social Convenor and for several years produced the Club’s annual brochure. She was previously Webmistress for SI North West England & Isle of Man, and a member of the SI NW England & Isle of Man Regional Conference Organising Committee.
In 2012, Pam was awarded Outstanding Achievement Award at the Dental Awards, and the BADN Outstanding Contribution to Dental Nursing Award. Pam celebrated 30 years of employment with BADN in 2022. She received an MBE for services to dental nursing in 2025.
:
badn.org.uk/
:
pam-swain-518a51a7/
